Bulgaria PM: We Get INSEAD Professor to Fill in for World Bank Vice President

INSEAD Professor Ilian Mihov is going to fill in for World Bank Vice President Kristalina Georgieva in the Bulgarian government as Georgieva is now the country's new EC-Designate. Photos by Dnevnik/BGNES

Announcing his first reshuffle, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said INSEAD Professor Ilian Mihov would join the cabinet instead of World Bank Vice President Kristalina Georgieva who is the country’s new EC-Designate.

Borisov admitted that Georgieva was supposed to join the Bulgarian government as Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the economy in the summer of 2009 but because of her commitments at the World Bank, she was unable to do that.

“We had a number of negotiations with Mrs. Georgieva’s boss, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, and we finally worked out a deal under which she was supposed to join our cabinet in March or April of 2010. Yet, now the emergency situation with our EU Commissioner spot made it necessary for us to demonstrate that we have a strong candidate,” Borisov said thus revealing details about the forming of his government from the summer of 2009 which only barely leaked to the media at the time.

He admitted it was his idea to have Kristalina Georgieva as a Deputy PM in his team.

“The failure of Kristalina Georgieva to join us in Sofia will not affect the government because now we have included INSEAD Professor Ilian Mihov who is one of the top 500 macroeconomics experts in the world, and is teaching from Paris to Singapore. This is how I am going to strengthen the financial and economic capacities of the government,” Borisov stated making it clear that Mihov is supposed to fill in the spot previously intended for Georgieva.

The Prime Minister said the exact responsibilities of the new Deputy PM Mihov would be hammered out in detail next week. He has made no mention of how the appointment of Mihov would affect the responsibilities of Finance Minister Simeon Djankov, who is also the current Deputy PM in charge of the economy.

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